by

TWO ROOMS …..at The Complex, Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles.
“Compelling drama at its finest has come to the Hollywood Fringe Festival in the form of this hostage tale which tugs at the heartstrings.”
Review by: SANDRO MONETTI

When her husband is taken prisoner in Beirut by Shiite Muslim extremists, agonized Lainie Wells strips his home office bare and sits in this self created prison day after day hoping for good news.

Meanwhile in a bare cell in the Lebanon, kidnapped and blindfolded Michael Wells tries to raise his spirits by composing love letters to his wife that he knows he’ll never get to send.

As days turn into years, Lainie must decide if the best way to bring him home is to stay silent and let the diplomats do their work or to give emotional media interviews pressuring the government into action.

Belinda Gosbee brilliantly captures her character’s dilemma in a tour de force as loving Lainie who is being manipulated by both a seemingly sympathetic journalist (played by a quicksilver Mario Vernazza) and an apparently supportive State Department official (a cool and composed Catherine Siggins).

As the hostage, Christopher DeVinny creates a heartfelt and optimistic character who has you willing the play to have a happy ending.
The whole enterprise works so well thanks to the clever direction of Amir Korangy who makes sure never to succumb to sentimentality but still manages to create a hugely moving love story.

TWO ROOMS by Lee Blessing at Complex Theatres, 6476 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles
Remaining performances, Sat June 15 at 5.45pm, Fri June 21 at 8.30pm, Sat June 22 at 8.30pm.
Tickets $14.50 from Hollywood Fringe

Lee Blessing

Thespian Thoughts is a theatre review article on Actors Reporter, a channel on the Actors Podcast Network, a Pepper Jay Production.

by